purchasing from one seller or multiple sellers from bricklink?

[tihehe]

i need to purchase extra ~800 extra bricks to mod my 42115 lamborghini according to the parts list provided on a eurobricks forum. should i purchase all parts from a single seller or purchase each brick based on which seller is selling at the cheapest (which is very time consuming)?

what's your approach to buying such large quantities of bricks?

Edited February 28, 2021 by tihehe

[caiman0637]

Ordering from only one to three-ish sellers is the best advice I can give you. If you order based on the cheapest parts, the shipping cost will be pretty scary. (And, as you said, it's time-consuming.) 

[MAB]

It depends. Check the prices for all the parts you need from one seller if they can fulfill the lot, then compare what would happen if you split the order between two sellers and keep going until the price is acceptable.

[Alexandrina]

1 hour ago, tihehe said:

should i purchase all parts from a single seller

In my experience, you'll have a hard time finding a single seller who has every brick you need - especially if you want large quantities of a single brick, lots of uncommon parts, or you don't want to pay international shipping. But as others said, the fewer sellers you can split the parts amongst, the better. What I would do personally is put all of the parts into a wanted list, but rather than letting Bricklink automatically take me to a shop, I'll start with the rarest/most expensive parts. Especially if you need parts that cost a couple of quid each, it's possible that the difference between the cheapest option for the bricks and the option from the most comprehensive seller is not dissimilar to your shipping costs. Once you've found a seller that's got the rarer parts, you can see every other part they have in stock from your wanted list - hopefully that will clear a good chunk for you. Don't buy until you've checked other stores, though, because you might find that the store selling your rare part for 10p more is also selling a load of other parts at 2p less, so your overall saving is greater.

Another thing you can do, to save costs at least in the short term, is see what parts you can cobble together from your own unbuilt bricks. (I'm not sure from your OP whether the 800ish parts you need are excluding parts you've already got, or just the flat total from the parts list). Even if you intend to build all your sets up in the future and so don't want to be left short, it can be a good way of amortising the costs over a longer period. If you can find, say, 400 pieces from your own collection, you now only need to buy 400 to get your model built. The remaining 400 pieces you can get here and there over the coming months and years, perhaps as hangers-on to other orders you make in the future.

[JintaiZ]

It depends on what type of bricks you are looking for. If you are looking for common pieces (pins/axles/studs), then one seller should be enough. Otherwise, you should purchase parts from 2-4 different sellers and even with the shipping costs, you will still be paying less.